How Long Do AGM Deep Cycle Batteries Last Solar Lead Acid Battery Bank

[@CampingWithCats]

Excellent video ✌️❤️🖖

[@busdweller]

I have 4/200 amph AGM that are in their 7th year and they're still running strong. Wired for 48 volts ad charged by 4/195 watt panels.

[@affordablesolarguy]

I'm coming up on year 7, I ripped the lids off my AGM's and added fluid to extend their life this year, year 6

[@crosbyclan]

What depth of discharge do you use

[@affordablesolarguy]

@crosbyclan I avoid going below 50%, but usually 60% ish A couple or few times per year in the winter, I forget and drop to 40% ish before noticing. @@crosbyclan

[@noahriding5780]

I have a question for you. Hope you can reply. It seems like AGM charge faster and have higher charge but less depth than many marine batteries. But marine batteries are more desirable for amp hours. Would it be possible to have your power inverter key off drawing power from an AGM battery with the AGM battery being the lead battery connecting to the rest of the batteries being just normal deep amp hour marine batteries? My reasoning and question for this is... if you have a 12 V system, then the power inverter gets power dips every time you put a load on the system. But power inverters are programmed to shut off if the power dip is very high to protect the batteries (not go below like 10.5 volts). So this means a power system can't run devices that use very many watts if they don't have a higher initial volt battery connecting being the one connecting to the power inverter? I also already have normal marine batteries that aren't reaching very high on the volts. I need like 1 battery to be slightly higher or around 13 Volts that could be the lead battery going into the inverter and hope that solves my issue of the power dips when the inverter wants to shut off? So I'm wondering if this idea could work with... tricking the inverter a bit by having only the battery going to the inverter being a slightly higher voltage battery than the others (but still being somewhat close to 12 volts instead of 24 volts)? (It costs a lot to go to 24 volt conversion and not ready for that yet.)

[@affordablesolarguy]

YOU WROTE: It seems like AGM charge faster and have higher charge but less depth than many marine batteries. But marine batteries are more desirable for amp hours. I completely disagree. Marine Batteries do , or can have (if they are the best) similar depth, but specialize in high cranking ampt, to start your boat motor , after have heavy depletion. Deep cycles are designed for smaller discharge levels for much longer periods of time, you need to study the 20/10 hour rating system to understand. When you deplete ANY battery faster than its stated AH rate, you lose capacity. For example, I try to never pull more than 50 watts per 100 amp 20 hour rating battery, in order to minimize sever efficiency loss/capacity loss from the AGM lead acid chemistry So with my 10 , 100 amp hour /20 hour rated bank brand new can pull 50 watts per battery for 10 hours and still be close to 50% dod (depth of discharge), and not suffer cycle damage. 600 watts is my factory stated max , sustainable draw to obtain the efficiency claimed brand new off the shelf, but they don't , or are not supposed to have the cranking amps of Marine batteries, which dont last as long, due to the necessity for extra lead surface area to obtain cranking amps. The "spray on lead particles sulfate faster, but produce higher cranking amps during its life. At least that is my understanding. Marine is a cross between a car battery and a deep cycle, not best for off grid application. YOu want "Pure deep cycles"

[@affordablesolarguy]

YOU WROTE:Would it be possible to have your power inverter key off drawing power from an AGM battery with the AGM battery being the lead battery connecting to the rest of the batteries being just normal deep amp hour marine batteries? NO, dont ever mix different batteries in your bank if avoidable, you will never get the charging peramiters right unless they happen to be exactly the same. Without the same discharge and charging peramiters, some batteries deplete faster, resist charge more, and dead cells come very quickly due to unequal charge/discharge. Batteries don't just die, they are murdered. This is how you murder them,, dont do it.

[@affordablesolarguy]

YOU WROTE: So I'm wondering if this idea could work with... tricking the inverter a bit by having only the battery going to the inverter being a slightly higher voltage battery than the others (but still being somewhat close to 12 volts instead of 24 volts)? (It costs a lot to go to 24 volt conversion and not ready for that yet.) lIKE i stated above, your inverter and draw are to large for the battery bank, and marine batteries are NOT a substitute for a good "DEEP CYCLE" Your cables to inverter too long and to thin. I recommend you move AWAY from marine batteries, your not using them as intended and try the UB (universal Battery) Deep cycle AGM, they crank just fine after depletion, its just not going to hold the 100 amp hour 20 hour rate if your starting your engine a lot out on the boat. Marine batteries are kind of a "jack of all", master of NONE battery,, NOt Designed for what your trying to do, despite what someone has told you. There is NO substitute for a deep cycle, long term, 20 hour rating battery. You lose longevity for cranking amps with the marine batteries.

[@noahriding5780]

@@affordablesolarguy Thank you very much. You are very helpful.

[@affordablesolarguy]

@@noahriding5780 shorten and double up on the cables from the batteries to the inverter, will probably fix your issue somewhat

[@hasger1941]

Interesting, wonder the DOD applied to the use cycles...

[@affordablesolarguy]

I try to avoid going below 50%, but in winter,, I have accidently got to 20 or 30 percent ,, maybe a week or two in duration, each year

[@UKsystems]

@@affordablesolarguy if possible adding a couple more batteries may actually prevent this and you could increase the life of the pack much longer as well

[@affordablesolarguy]

@@UKsystems no, more likely the charge controller will either reduce voltage to the weakest battery , killing the new ones much faster than expected (AGM's like to be topped off), or the charge controller will OVERCHARGE the old ones and burn them out even faster. Never combine degraded batteries with new ones unless it is just temporary for an emergency or you just don't care about them.

[@affordablesolarguy]

@@UKsystems Charge perimeters change as batteries degrade, resistance grows as they sulfate. Old batteries fill much faster due to less capacity, so, any new one will be constantly drained by the weaker ones and your controller will get confuse and expedite the death of all involved. Batteries in a bank need to be identical, even one bad cell in a single battery will kill the entire bank if one does not catch and eliminate it. It is like having a constant drain on the bank, even where there is none. In other words, the good ones are losing cycles to endlessly equalize with the bad one. That is what electricity does.

[@UKsystems]

@@affordablesolarguy you can get a charger to connect both properly

[@e6ensperception]

Whats the max amps i can put into agm batteries? Like if i have 2800w solar × .85 = 2380w (for an eg4 charge controller loss) can i safety put 4 agm's in a 48v series and pump 50amps (2380w) into them? Online it says agm can safey charge at 20 amps per 70ah (140ah total) agm battery but that would mean id need 10 batteries? 10 batteries would just be too much weight. Meaning id have to upgrade to iron phosphate which would be much more expensive...

[@e6ensperception]

Note: with cloudy days i expect to make slightly less than 50 amps but the issue im running into is if I have 4 batteries rated to charge at 20 amps each does that mean I can pump 20amps into the 48v battery or 80amps?

[@affordablesolarguy]

I personally found "stated specs" are a bunch of BS. Sure,, they "can" do it,, but you will burn them out very quickly. Literally , you will be destroying the lead plate structure. And greatly expediting "CATASTROPHIC " FAILURE. I try to NEVER put more than 200 watts (about 16 amps at 12 v.) per 100 AH AGM deep cycle. Any more than that causes off gassing, and greatly accelerated wear and failure far in advance of potential life span.

[@affordablesolarguy]

@@e6ensperception What you are suggesting will burn your 4 batteries instantly,, I doubt you will get through a single sunny season, and possible, immediate burnout of ever single "cell number 1" on ever single battery,, the first day of good light.

[@affordablesolarguy]

Even if you had 10 modern AGM 100 AH deep cycles, you would be cooking them very quickly, and will suffer complete failure within a year,, or two.

[@affordablesolarguy]

@@e6ensperception As for cloudy days, ,? This is nothing short of Russian Roulette. A single "cloud edge" hour will melt the lead grid inside your batteries.

[@noahriding5780]

Do you think it makes a difference on how long the batteries last on if they are parralel or series wired? Which would get them to last longer than the other?

[@affordablesolarguy]

No, but, in either case, checking individual voltage and "balance charging" any that may be lagging is important. The cabling must be exact as well, so resistance is identical between batteries. That plus an annual battery rotation ensures you get maximum life from your bank, weather series or parallel. Draining a lead acid battery below 50% regularly also ensures you only get the life expectancy that is warren-teed on a particular battery. Best to never let a 12 volt battery go below 12 volt (no load on), use them from 13 volt down to 12, and your at 50% roughly. This extends the life of the battery. If you never go below 12.1 or 12.2 volts, even longer life.

[@noahriding5780]

I had a question for you. I recently had a charge controller go out (2nd time, different controller type each time). It was fast where it was fine and then just failed over the course of a few days. I acted as soon as I saw it, so I'm hoping there won't be a lot of damage, and I switched and upgraded the charge controller, but not before it gave me a problem event. When I noticed it, the other batteries were showing the symptom by having had their voltage drop. Like after dark when the solar panels weren't feeding power in, the entire system just had the voltage drop. The voltage used to be around 12.3 or 12.4V normally before this problem occurred. Then when I got the problem now its showing 11.8V across the system. One of the batteries I pulled out and then the voltage went up a lot higher in the system overall after taking that one out, which was where the controller lead in was at. This makes me think that battery ...its possible it may have also been damaged slightly. But I don't know if this is permanent damage or fixable damage on batteries when you have a bit of a voltage drop? And is there such a thing as fixable damage? What's fixable wear compared to permanent wear? I know what to do to fix the wiring and the charge controllers, etc. I've fixed that. And I'm grateful there's people to ask questions here and other places. But what I don't know and I'm worried about is; how do you know if a low voltage problem in a battery is permanent damage or something you can bounce back with some maintenance? And how well can you repair a battery that's showing some voltage trouble? (Such as with putting a desulfator on, etc.) I'm really hoping I can bounce a battery back from it not having the voltage it should. And that there's ways to get it back up? And what is fixable wear, low damage compared to permanent damage?

[@parabot2]

great Tips , much appreciated

[@affordablesolarguy]

Thank you, I'm really happy how well my batteries are holding up ;)

[@noahriding5780]

Higher volts in the 13s (thirteens) isn't bad because when you put a load on the system, it experiences a power dip from the inverter pulling power. This power dip is anywhere from 0.5 volts to 2 volts. But your system will shut off if it goes below 10.5 volts. So having it a bit higher than just 12 volts is good. Its not something to worry about. If it goes lower than 13 Volts then you trip the system too easily. You WANT them above 13. ... But do you have a charge controller that can brake the cut off of power if you get too much overload? (Is this why your power is so high?) ... Curious what kind of inverter you are using too.

[@affordablesolarguy]

its all in my videos, and what your stating here is true if you have a tiny battery bank and pull more than your battery is rated for. I NEVER have that issue, 13 volts , 12.8 volts with my AGM's means 90-100 % full,, nothing more, with no load on , after sitting idol for an hour or so. What your describing is insufficient wiring, insufficient battery bank, to large a draw for battery . None of which plague me. I suspect your cable from battery to inverter is way to long and to thin

[@noahriding5780]

@@affordablesolarguy Thank you boss.

[@affordablesolarguy]

@@noahriding5780 You might just need to shorten and/or double up on the cable from the batteries to the inverter. Doubling the cables is just like getting the next size up and greatly improves , or prevents line loss and Through put to your inverter, everyone underestimates how important that is. Huge fat short cables are the best , especially at 12 volt. Might fix your issue without money spending, just put more wires , can stack as many as you need, works the same as one huge big expensive one, without the cost.

[@affordablesolarguy]

@@noahriding5780 cables that typically come with inverters are WAY insufficient, I always replace, HUGE difference.

[@noahriding5780]

@@affordablesolarguy Wow. I never would have come close to thinking about trying that.

[@leetaves9143]

your doing good i have 10 L-Q- A ill give you

[@CampingWithCats]

???

[@CampingWithCats]

The shipping on that would be high. I'd love to have them for my little set up in the swamp but you've probably gotten rid of them by now. ✌️❤️🖖

[@leetaves9143]

@@CampingWithCats i live in MILTON FL it miss us we didnt even get rain,i took all the bat down to interstate batt i got 7.00 a pease,order two more life04 140 appease i seven of them now

[@javiercoronel1169]

Quick vid 16 min long😅😅

[@leetaves9143]

hey